Bedding

You Wont Forget Me

You Wont Forget Me

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Basically just being nosey really. Tell me what bedding you use for your horses any why you use it? I didnt even realise until a few months ago that there was so many different options to chose from, so what do you use and why????
 
My boy spent last winter out 24/7 all year round for the first time in a number of years. I used straw for a while which was easy to muck out, cheap and readily available and before that, Bedmax shavings. Although they are expensive for a bale, I find that they lasted for a week to 10 days per bale and he was very easy and clean to muck out. Only used to take me about 10 mins each day! :)
 
I use safebed - a woodchip bedding. My horse is incredibly mucky and I like a white shavings bed so that option was NEVER going to work!! I used straw for a bit but found that the smell lingered on my hair and clothes and wasn't good when mucking out before work! Eventually settled on woodchips as it's more difficult for him to mix the wet and pooh in with the clean, I muck out in 10 minutes with a pooh scoop and there's no lingering odours!
 
In the past I have used shavings which I liked but expensive. Straw which is cheap but untidy and dusty and not very absorbent and Nedz which is lovely but expensive. Nowadays I use chopped straw by the trade name of Unibed which I like a lot as it is absorbent, stays put and I use less than a bale a week.
 
10 Minutes:eek: i am on shavings just now but change to straw in the winter to be a bit warmer and it keeps my boy alot cleaner too, with the shavings it takes me no less than 20 mins to muck out and same with straw however if he's been in during day to (due to fields being thick with snow) then it takes even longer!!!! I think im a bit OTT with his stable tho have to get every last droplet out haha
 
I got a young lad [has worked in a big yard] to muck out for me [he volunteered], and watched idly as he did an OK job, he said "whew, never mucked one out so fast" :eek: I thought he was on a go slow!
We used to do four horses every afternoon, it took three hours including grooming, horse walking and feeding, but a.m. we had four horses to do before tacking up for 7.00 am, and I usually started at 6.25, you can do it if you try!
 
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Deep bed of straw which I lay down fully - no hardstanding visible. Takes a few mins to take poo out (usually in a pile somewhere near the door). Wet comes out once a week... mind you I have a stable that slopes into a corner which drains nicely. Haven't stabled him since last Nov though for a few weeks after a bout of acute lami.

I just adapt to what YO wants though... used to use pellets which were easy. Before that it was shavings - dusty. Before that paper - yuk, never again.

Thinking about elephant grass this winter if we have to stable again as straw is looking short this year...

Out of them all, I'd choose straw.
 
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Ecobed cardboard on matting, it takes me 5 mins per stable to do immaculately. it's clean, dust-free, cosy (having slept in it for a month on foalwatch i am now fully qualified to say that, unfortunately!) and cost-effective. i've tried everything else over the years, and come back to this.
i have straw in the field shelters because it is very windy up there and the cardboard would blow around, but mucking them out drives me crackers, horrible stuff to work with.
 
I have big deep shavings bed on rubber matting :)
straw smells, paper just got saturated, equisorb didn't make very good banks, snowflake softchip was horrible and it got dirty so quickly it also didn't make very good banks.

Shavings is always my bedding of choice but straw, paper, equisorb and snowflake I've had to use because of a yard or show policy. Shavings looks so much cleaner and more comfortable for the horse! :p
 
You Wont Forget Me said:
10 Minutes:eek: i am on shavings just now but change to straw in the winter to be a bit warmer and it keeps my boy alot cleaner too, with the shavings it takes me no less than 20 mins to muck out and same with straw however if he's been in during day to (due to fields being thick with snow) then it takes even longer!!!! I think im a bit OTT with his stable tho have to get every last droplet out haha
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Think it depends how much time you have. I have to leave my house at 6.30 for work and trust me, mucking out my shavings beds takes me 5-10 mins tops. Mind you this means they are out long days. Also I do spend much longer at weekends
 
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